Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

A conversion is when a website visitor completes an action you want them to take. This could be completing a callback request, requesting a catalog, or completing a purchase. Whatever it is you want your website visitors to do, this action that defines the ‘success’ of your website can can have an impact on the success of your business overall.

This is why optimizing your website for conversions and removing any existing obstacles is so critical.

So what is Conversion Rate Optimization?

CRO is:

A structured and systematic approach to improving the performance of your website

Informed by insights—specifically, analytics and user feedback

Defined by your website’s unique objectives and needs (KPIs)

Taking the traffic you already have and making the most of it

CRO is not:

Based on guesses, hunches, or what everyone else is doing

Driven by the highest paid person’s opinion (HIPPO)

About getting as many users as possible, regardless of quality or engagement

So what does conversion rate optimization do?

As part of any CRO campaign we look at optimizing your website’s Call-to-Actions (CTAs). These are the primary element of the user interface that we want users to interact with in order to complete a goal onsite. On Amazon this is a big ‘Buy Now’ button, on email signup forms you’ll see a big ‘Sign Up’ CTA and on pages with Whitepapers, a big ‘Download Now’ icon. Without a strong CTA,q you could be losing leads.

Using Google Analytics and heatmapping software we look at the Conversion Funnel, analyzing the ‘user journey’ that website visitors are taking before converting. On a site where the primary goal is catalog requests, the conversion funnel may be:

Homepage > Product Category Page > Product Page > Request A Catalog

Understanding this pathway is vital to guide visitors who fall outside of this to the desired destination.

A/B Testing (or Split Testing) is testing one version of a page against an alternate versions, this could be a totally new page wireframe or just a change in color of one of the page elements (yes, color of CTAs can affect the number of times they are clicked). It is important only one thing is tested at a time.

Another important aspect of CRO is the testing of multiple variations of many different page elements in various combinations to determine the best performing elements and combination, this is called Multivariate Testing. For example, a multivariate landing test may test many variations of the pictures, copy, and calls to action used on the page in many combinations to find the best performer.